After one point from six games and a growing sense that Aston Villa football club is spiraling into uncertainty. After being labelled as everything from a soap opera to a circus, a concern has been raising amongst Villa fans to the seemingly weekly dose of pictures of Villa players goofing around in training.
At first, they thought it was just a case of the club’s PR machine thinking supporter’s were born yesterday and trying to put on a brave face to cover up Randy Lerner leaving the club in limbo, after telling us to wait until the end of the season to find out what is going on at the club.
However, based on the hard evidence of the results of the last six Villa games it seems that Villa’s ‘training methods’ maybe directly at fault.
When a batch of particularly jokey training photos preceded a 4-1 drubbing by Swansea City, suspicions arose that the Villa players were just on a big jolly all week.
Rumours leaked out of Bodymoor this week that the player’s felt with resident kill-joys Ian Culverhouse and Gary Karsa now out the way, the high jinx and tom-foolery could now step up a level.
In the picture above, the players seem to be doing impressions of Antonio Luna’s defending to the Villa left-back’s face (apparently a tradition back in Spain at his ex-clubs too).
Surely the player’s time would be better spent on finally learning how to defend properly?
Also alarming from these happy camper training pictures is Paul Lambert being exposed as a fun and jovial character, a real king of the banter.
“Yeah, Paul’s whole serious match day persona, of a sour-faced grumbling out-of-his-depth manager is just a big wind-up,” a source close to Lambert told MOMS.
“The whole mumbling accent and his team selections are all just a big joke. It’s an act. He’s actually a half-decent manager, but he’s got a bet on with Mr Lerner at the moment, as to who can be the biggest clown at the club.”
Haha, very funny guys, but maybe it’s time to start taking this season seriously? UTV
A Venglos View is a satirical (and sometimes surreal) look at the Villa. And just to spell it out to certain people, some of it, believe it or not, is actually made up.
Final word: On a serious note, yes, we all know it must be a right old laugh earning thousands of pounds for playing football all week, while some of us live out the daily struggles and blue collar work depicted in Bruce Springsteen songs, but please don’t spin us the yarn with these pictures that everything at the club is hunky dory.
You’re not kidding any one. We want our Villa back.
But Villa park is not a source of humour but some opposition fans find the doom & gloom attitude of some fans a big source of merriment . But that’s not to say the present predicament is not worrying , as it is . But many outside of the club think Villa has a better team than do some of our fans , and are sympathetic to the fact we have so many injuries in key areas of the team .
Totally crap observation basically
We do not have high expectation at the club just a normal standard for footballers that get paid large amounts of money and the priveledge of wearing the club shirt to do a lot better
LAMBERT/ LEANER OUT
VTID
Ridiculous article from the normally excellent MOMS or a poor attempt at satire. Lionel is right, these guys work together week in week out, any blue collar office in the country has some banter. Its not that they dont care, they are simply not good enough. If we stay up it will by luck rather than judgement and can look forward to a season of struggle next year. ST holder for 23 years cant justify investment in this anymore. Breaks my heart.
Bally
The point isn’t the player’s banter. Of course, they care and have a laugh. It’s the way, all of a sudden, the percentage of smiling pictures drastically went up in these training pics, under headlines of the players being ‘buoyant’ and ‘lively’. Basically, painting this spin of all is wonderful at Villa. Supporters aren’t stupid. (If that message didn’t come across, then it must be poor satire!) UTV
Wow, Football Club in positive PR shocker. No we are not stupid, probably what would be wrong is to make the assumption that training at AVFC is one long jolly, hard evidence would be witnessing a training session on which to base the assumption, results will tell you we are simply not good enough. sorry I just don’t agree entirely with the sentiments in this particular piece. Bigger problems at Villa than a few PR pictures on which you base your article, lack of investment and quality and it’s hitting home now. UTV
Oh for Christ’s sake, act your age! Football is a game. These blokes live in each others’ pockets all week long. Of course there is banter – as there is in any workplace. We’re in deep trouble because the players are not good enough for this league. I get fed up with nonsense that equates failure with not caring. I’m just waiting for some pillock to tell us that we should “pick the kids ‘cos at least they’d care”. None of these players comes in and says “I think I’ll have a crap game today”. To be looking at a few randomly-taking photos and deducing that the players don’t care is just childish.
Of course the players care. The players aren’t really the issue here. It’s the way, post Culverhouse, suddenly most the training pics of Lambert and the players have been of them having big Cheshire cat grins and the corresponding text of them being in great spirits and confident of winning etc. As if, the fans have forgotten the previous results.
We can laugh go at lerners debt increasing and his club for sale dream being just that a dream
My bank balance will be better too not renewing my tickets next year
The players will soon be van drivers and can look back at the golden opportunity they pissed on
Trevor – unlike some we can do both serious and humourous. But the whole concept of satire is to communicate serious points across more effectively. We never write anything in Venglos View just for the case of a cheap laugh. There are always layers and messages. Your kill joy comments are insulting, not welcome and only highlight an ignorance.
The training photographs are pathetic and remind of North Korean propaganda…. smiley faces, but underneath it’s just plain awful! It makes me feel sick!
We have the worst side since the days of O’Dreary! Even Big Eck’s team was slightly better than this! A totally shambolic midfield that cannot pass a ball just in front of a player, that cannot tackle, cannot header, sits deep and invites an attack, and rarely wins a 50/50 – yet Lambert continues to play the same three across the line (Westwood. Delph and the Moroccan who I can’t even bring myself to look up his spelling!).
The defence are awful too! Last ditch tackles, clumsy challenges and zero idea of what to do with the ball when they get – although this is probably exacerbated by the lack of anything in midlfield.
We desperately need a new owner(s) and a new manager who understands a few basic tactics and who respects the fans. We are not stupid! We are tired of the same rhetoric and we deserve lots better than what has been served up this year… both home and away, because there is no chance of survival next year if we carry on like this!
UTV
I agree on the photos. I mean 1 or 2 fair enough, but when 80% of them are big smiles and laughter, you know they are there to try to put a message across.
there is a lot to be sorted at this club at the end of the season, and one of the things to be sorted is the idea Villa Park is a source of humour.
The only successful fan group in the country is Spirit of Shankly at Liverpool. They got their club sorted. No one up there thinks football is a source of humour, but they have the real horror of Hillsborough to keep them straight.
Villa is not a life or death issue. But it is not a joke either.
trevor fisher